Farmers feed fish in An Giang Province. Prices, taxes and competition between foreign-invested companies producing and trading feed for shrimp and fish will be put under investigation. — VNA/VNS Photo Cong Mao

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Ministries and relevant agencies will probe the implementation of prices, tax and competition between foreign-invested companies producing and trading feed for shrimp and fish.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh has asked the Minister of Finance (MoF) to co-operate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), police and other relevant offices to investigate whether these companies have indulged in pricing transfers.

The MoF and relevant offices in cities and provinces will inspect those companies that account for a large share on the local market of feed for shrimp and fish and investigate violations on price, and tax. Meanwhile, the MoIT will inspect the competitive norms of those companies.

The authorities in the provinces and cities will inspect the declaration and listing of the selling price at provinces and cities.

The deputy prime minister issued those directions after suggestions from some members of the National Assembly that foreign-invested enterprises were dominating the local market in feed for shrimp and fish.

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), in recent years, some of these enterprises have violated price regulations by failing to declare prices in accordance with regulations and by selling items for amounts that differ from the declared price, reported Government's website chinhphu.vn. The enterprises that hold large market shares are not under the list of enterprises that must declare price as per existing regulations.

However, the MARD and their relevant agencies have not found any deal between foreign-invested companies to control the price of feed for shrimp and fish.

For many years, the domestic fishery industry needed an annual average rate of 3.53 million tonnes of feed for shrimp and fish and foreign firms accounted for 80 per cent of the supply.

In the past five years, prices of foreign feed for shrimp and fish have increased 6 to 7 times as against the previous years, because companies claimed they would have suffered losses due to high input prices. — VNS